The present invention relates to a room temperature controlling apparatus used for an air conditioner, by which a preset temperature in a room can be changed based on the degree of movement of persons present in a room.
Conventionally, a room temperature controlling apparatus functions to control temperature in a room to a preset value or thereabout based on the temperature detected by a temperature sensor installed in the main body of an air conditioner. For instance, when in a cooling operation mode, the air conditioner stops cooling if the detected temperature is lower than the preset value so that it maintains the temperature in the room at a value near the preset temperature. The above described apparatus, however, functions in the same manner irrespective of the existence of people in the room, thus it is impossible to operate the air conditioner based on the presence of persons in the room.
Therefore, some apparatuses, such as one disclosed in Japanese Laid-open Pat. Publication No. 174448/1985, for instance, have been recently proposed, which can detect whether or not a person is in a room, and control operation of an air conditioner based on the presence of human beings.
FIG. 8 is a block diagram showing the apparatus described above. In this drawing, numeral 101 designates a wireless remote control unit, and numeral 102 designates a main body.
The wireless remote control unit 101 consists of a room temperature sensor 103, an infrared sensor 104, controls 105, and a transmitter 106.
The main body 102 comprises a room temperature sensor 107, controls 108, and a receiver 109.
With the construction above, if the infrared sensor 104 detects the presence of a human body, the wireless remote control unit 101 transfers a signal representative of room temperature signal from the transmitter 106 to the receiver 109 by activating the controls 105 based on the temperature detected by the room temperature sensor 103 provided in the wireless remote control unit 101 which sensor 103 normally positioned adjacent to the human body. Thus, the apparatus controls the operation of the air conditioner based on the temperature adjacent to the human body so that persons in the room feel comfortable.
However, the apparatus thus constructed has the following disadvantage: since the apparatus detects whether or not a person is in a room using the infrared sensor 104 and only selects one of alternative room temperature sensors 103, 107 to transfer a signal indicative of room temperature for controlling the operation of the air conditioner, the apparatus cannot precisely control the operation of the air conditioner so as to control temperature based on the movement degree of the person when in a room. For instance, when the air conditioner functions as a cooler, the air conditioner must operate more effectively when a person actively works in the room, the cooling operation of the air conditioner should be mild when the human being is sitting on a chair without working actively, and the cooling operation should be even milder to prevent the person sleeping in the room from getting a cold. Thus, the required operation of the air conditioner differs due to the activity or degree of movement of the person in the room.